[silvercats]

I found this article http://www.head-fi.org/t/663773/is-burn-in-real-or-placebo. It had this link in it. Supposedly the documented proof http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/evidence-headphone-break

 

[Ivabign]

  No doubt you got those "certain IEs".  ( Rolling eyes.)

"Certain IE's?"
 
Is that how you deal with views not your own? Grasp for straws?

 

[kenz]

People choose to believe .. or not, and some choose to follow the "seniors" on the forum parroting what those seniors believe in rather than experience themselves.
 
Personally, i believe in burn-in, not because of what people say but based on my many experiences with gears i've used and kept for a long time or purposefully drove them in continuously to simulate extended usage.
 
Those who have yet to believe in burn-in are likely,
1. too fixated on theoretical notes in books (stating plenty of scientific terms to "outsmart" their debating counterparts).
2. too many equipment to give any one of them sufficient usage time for the effects to kick-in, likely selling them off before ever experiencing them and buying new equipment. so these folks will NEVER experience any burn-in given such usage/buying patterns.
3. brains and ears DO adjust to the sound of new equipment played and experienced over time, and is the biggest argument against burn-in. Of course, when you're living and breathing the equipment, the you'd be getting used to it in minute subtle ways that you're not aware off yourselves. Subtle and sublime changes are often not recognized but they do impact a person's perspective in significant ways, not just audio.
4. they are the most fortunate ones, who will never need to change, spend or upgrade their equipment because that's the limits of their aural sensory. 
5. The complete chain of equipment used are questionable.
 
Other debates like Cables all work the same, and they do not change the sound. Sure... then why are there so many companies doing cables and making very good business out of it? Either there are many gullible audiophiles or maybe there's some real world truth to cables?
 
 
Ivabgn, 
The example of Senn IE8s old and new being tested together, is one of the very few ways of "proving" burn-in existence. 
It's like those comments we read on forums where people tried an equipment today and months later but somehow not sounding the same, or same equipment sounding different in different stores. The forum is peppered with plenty of such examples. 
 
I've come to the conclusion, it is ultimately pointless in debating with people who have yet to experience burn-in, based on the above pointers. End of the day, what matters is what we experienced and we qualify them based on actual A/Bs. It doesn't matter what the naysayers say, they can choose to believe otherwise and that's fine by me.
 
Just don't force their point of view on us or say what we've experienced is rubbish and going around evangelizing that notion. I'm cool if we agree to disagree.

 

[james444]

Can't speak for headphones, but in the 10 years I've been on head-fi, I've owned close to a 100 pairs of IEMs and never experienced a case of burn-in that I'd call significant.
 
I've heard very slight changes in sound signature of some dynamic drivers though, but only during the first few hours of playtime. I've never witnessed a change after the first 10 hours or so.
 
I'm fine with people who choose to believe in burn-in for themselves, but tbh, the way it's often advocated to others as a remedy for all kinds of shortcomings in IEMs makes me cringe. In my book the most convincing evidence that burn-in is largely expectation bias (wishful thinking) is the fact that 99.9% of listeners report a change for the better. I'm pretty sure that if sound would really change significantly over time, some listeners would welcome that change and others wouldn't like it, so we'd end up with a more balanced statistics between change for better and change for worse.
 
Oh, and last not least, I've also managed to kill one pair of IEMs by following a fellow member's recommendation to play it at high volume for 24 hours. So, if you really think you need to "burn" your IEMs, I'd recommend doing it at normal listening levels.

 

 

[kenz]

  Can't speak for headphones, but in the 10 years I've been on head-fi, I've owned close to a 100 pairs of IEMs and never experienced a case of burn-in that I'd call significant.
 
I've heard very slight changes in sound signature of some dynamic drivers though, but only during the first few hours of playtime. I've never witnessed a change after the first 10 hours or so.
 
I'm fine with people who choose to believe in burn-in for themselves, but tbh, the way it's often advocated to others as a remedy for all kinds of shortcomings in IEMs makes me cringe. In my book the most convincing evidence that burn-in is largely expectation bias (wishful thinking) is the fact that 99.9% of listeners report a change for the better. I'm pretty sure that if sound would really change significantly over time, some listeners would welcome that change and others wouldn't like it, so we'd end up with a more balanced statistics between change for better and change for worse.
 
Oh, and last not least, I've also managed to kill one pair of IEMs by following a fellow member's recommendation to play it at high volume for 24 hours. So, if you really think you need to "burn" your IEMs, I'd recommend doing it at normal listening levels.

 

 
To clarify, burn in doesn't "fix" problems inherent in the equipment itself. That i agree is the wrong way of presenting "burn-in" as a solution.
Burn-in is not a solution.
 
To me burn-in represents a shift in the sonic presentation, lifting of veils, muddiness, bloat and the most apt way of putting it, "clearing the dust that's been collected", so that the true nature of the equipment is laid bare. That's likely why that 99.9% of listeners reported a change for the better. In some ways, it's true. There are changes and in audio context, even "small" changes however subtle, can be considered huge to some. The change is very much similar to chasing that last 5% of the sound quality paying truckloads of money. Changes so small, yet so huge a difference.
 
And honestly, any burn-in process regardless, is about moving the equipment components internally, so low volumes are sufficient to get the job done. Sorry to hear about the iem that got burnt in the process.